001welcome we are the otana school board this is uh Monday February 24th 5:30 I'm going to call this meeting to order and uh Tim is going to give us an update on our attendance uh just missing Aon she'll be right in yep let's start our meeting with pledge I algian to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all up first would be to approve the agenda as presented so moved do we have a second second we have a motion in a second is there any further discussion hearing none all in favor with an i i i any oppos that motion carries item four is the mission moments it's not very often that the recipients and the
002people being highlighted get a round of applause when they enter the room but Mr elad if you would please yeah uh Mr CH M the board tonight is my distinct pleasure to focus our mission moment on our um strategy of high quality teaching and learning so I'm going to ask Katie Demmer Joanie harmson uh Lori pet and Sammy Nelson to please come up to the front please tonight I am pleased to lift up our instructional coaches for our mission moment these four coaches provide an important role at our elementary buildings instructional coaches help teachers sift through all of the student data they receive to identify which students needs which students need additional help then they work together to determine which research-based program will help meet that need the coaches also collaborate with teachers to help
003them problem solve situations in their classroom brainstorm new ways of reaching students or to grow in their teaching skill this year our instructional coaches went through over 70 hours of reading instruction training for the react then to then train our elementary and special education teachers that knowledge is an incredibly valuable Resource as we move forward with redact implementation I am personally grateful and in behalf of the yatana public schools are grateful for their expertise that they bring to our schools and the ways that they support our learning to inspire Excellence for every learner every day members of the board if you have questions for our instruction I'm sure there are in fact I'm sure there are thank you all for being here this is U it's quite a treat to have all of you here
004questions I don't have a question I just have a comment 50% of you standing here have had significant influence on my household and my kids and I am just so happy to see you here and know that you're are now influencing the entire District so thank you all four of you so very much maybe just one story I I'm sure the react um you know we're all excited to kind of see and hear um some of the stories coming out of that work that you folks are doing I don't know if anybody has a a story you might share with us about how you've seen it impact a student or a Class A a teacher don't want to put you on this spot if nothing comes to mind that's fine too I can think of
005just like even in our building Katie can I stop for a minute there's a microphone right there will you press that little button too just so that we can get the recording the button okay um I can think of just in our work within our building and getting to see individual teachers applying things like getting to coach um kindergarten special ed teachers and um classroom teachers and like how do we make this work and like make it work in action and to see the excitement in both the kids and the learning that can happen and then that transfer to the teacher of like okay now can I try this with my next group like I've never KN known that this could work and so it's been exciting to see really that learning work be put
006into action and I think that's the best part of our jobs I would say is we being able to not just share the knowledge but really put it into practice and make it matter for kids thank you you guys want to [Laughter] add it's not really a story but it's just really fun to see teachers can you hear me am I close yeah we're good thank you um it's fun to see teachers connect connect what their learning to resources that they have in the classroom so last year we um started using functional fics with our kindergarten through second grade and then this year 95% group resources for third fourth and fifth and teachers are learning things and going oh that's why that is oh that's why that is so it's just fun to see the
007connections and the light bulbs just as much as it is with kids with adults great so excellent nice thank you every learner every day I think that is is probably the biggest thing for me too has been seeing the teachers embrace the role as learner um really everybody has taken the like I don't know what I don't know mindset and is okay to admit that oh maybe what I was doing isn't best and they're just really reflecting and learning and putting things into the place in their classrooms and it's cool yeah excellent welld deserved it's so much fun when Mr elad put um folks like yourselves in front of us and we get to hear more about what actually happens in the classroom so thank you every so much glad you're here tonight thanks thank
008you thank [Applause] you uh we're going to move on item five tonight is public forum we do have a card Roger wask Mr wask if you'd like to make your way up and as you're on your way up I would remind the group that this is good opportunity to remind you that the importance of this is u a good meeting deorum we do not allow slander defamation profanity personal attacks or Revelations of private data and as chair I respectfully request that the public refrain from interrupting uh the speaker during his public forum you Roger you afforded three minutes ask to state your name and the subject you'd like to address uh Roger wask still at 646 East Bine Street and you guys probably had a copy of this a couple weeks ago but I realized
009I got my wrong email address on it so I'll send it out to you again when someone complains about any aspect of isd761 such as curriculum I mentioned there are choices such as Tois school private school home school online school and apprenticeship programs in a hybrid educational system and then I found these interesting excerpts on digital curriculum from the book Steve Jobs uh I'll let you read those on your own probably the most important aspect of innovative learning opportunities that I have forgotten to mention in the past is the doter Community Education since I believe in lifelong learning I'm going to select at help from everyone in the community to call your city council members and ask when we'll have a tour of otana SE treatment plant with someone that can explain combined heat and
010power from the bio gas produced in the digestive tank call your county board members and ask when we'll have a repeated Community Education fall 2019 class Minnesota goes Green Recycling and Organics facility tour and most important call alter of Public Utilities Commission Commissioners board members and ask when we'll have a tour of St Paul Regional energy facility with Minnesota's 100% carbon free by 2040 law the last two is the most important for educating and energy science ignorant Society addicted to fossil fuel St Paul's Regional energy facilities is a confined heat and power facility that utiliz utilizes waste wood to generate electricity and heat and cool downtown St Paul in some residential areas I'll end with a suggestion for the city council to have oana's Economic Development directory conduct a feasibility study for a small Regional
011energy facility constructed in our Industrial Park thank you Mr wask thank you and we look forward to getting that information from you um when you send that to us via email uh that will takes care of uh the public forum item six tonight would be reports I'm turn things over to Mr elad for an introduction from our representative from aers public Finance thank you tonight we have Matt Hammer from aers who is our financial adviser for the district just if I can bring you back back in June uh the board approved um a t basically tax neutral bond to do some indoor air quality projects in addition to a pool project to make sure that our pool was of good functioning nature and so tonight Matt is here to present uh the pre-sale report for
012those bonds that will be sold in the near future so thanks Jeff uh good evening everybody Matt hammer District's financial adviser um I'm just here to walk through uh some of our assumptions going into the sale next month um we are going to partake in uh a few things over the next month um one will be um engaging in a rating process with the um rating agency moodies that the district uses um um conduct our due diligence process with the school district and then we're set to sell the bonds on March 24th um ahead of your your meting that night and planning to award um high level um if you go back to where we were last summer um we were estimating a 5% interest rate in the bonds at that point in time we've
013updated our estimates right now to be um 4.16% is what we've established in our pre-sale report we think that has some cushion still built into it we had some sales today that were that went very well so um we're hopeful that uh rates hold through the next month and we'll be in good shape when we get to selling the district's bonds um uh right now um we've aligned the bond sale to Al line up with the bid schedule that site logic is under um so we are looking to get an idea of where the bids come in um specifically for the indoor air quality portion of the project before we actually um finalize the financing uh the information we have in the pre-sale report um aligns with the authorized up to amounts that were established
014by the board um when they adopted the resolution last July um so we'll uh likely be refining these numbers as we move forward um they'll look different than when we get to sale date but we wanted to give everybody uh an idea of where we're at today um the levies were established so those levies that for the first Year's payments were estimated so if we go back to the process that we conducted last July um we established the levies as part of the district's long-term uh facilities maintenance plan that the board adopted at their July Meeting those l um were uh included in the district's Levy uh Levy that was authorized and certified at in the December meeting and Property Owners will be start paying towards those taxes uh here when they get the final
015statements in March um so I think we're in overall in good shape um but we just wanted to give everybody an update on where we're at there's information in the report um our numbers are all aligned with where we're thinking things are going to come in um and we're are hopeful to get good bid results when we get to the district's meeting here in March and I'll be back with with results at that point in time so I can take any questions folks have at this time so I'm looking at Ron I'm waiting for Ron to come up good I'm good you right yep um you want to give us just a Matt if you would a really really quick overview part of the bonding is for indoor air quality and those are issues that
016um um we're able to bond for the second part of it is the um the renovation essentially of the pool can you give us a quick overview on that yeah so the 5.8 million was uh approved as um part of the project within the district's authority to approv projects in the ltfm program so there's three categories of projects um one is the indoor air quality component of this project that estimated authorized amount is five or the authorized amount is 5.8 million that's the component that we want to make sure that we have a good handle on where the bids come in with site logic um because those uh dollars are restricted in their use um the other component dates back to the um original uh um authorized um election that happened in 2019 for the
017um high school project and other projects that were included in that project there was a remaining authority of 1.9 million roughly that makes up the balance of what we're looking at issuing and those dollars are going to go toward the pool component of the project that has been identified um but have much more flexibility so um those dollars will try to maximize the deposit when we get to the sale process here in in March and for ease and simplicity everything is rolled into one and it appears as though you've tried to um manage the the structure of it so it it coincides with the the existing debt that was issued as part of the new high school yep exactly yep and we're um doing it as a bifurcated issue where have two purposes but that
018allows us to save on cost of issuance and and manage the commitments when we go out to Market only once instead of um doing it in two separate issues questions I think it's you know it's all very consistent with we've been talking about this for like you said last summer and then approv the levy in the fall you know December so yeah it's all very much as expected so we'll just pray you get a good rate when you uh actually yep we'll be back here in a month so hopefully with good news issue inide those would be this did you say it's the same night as our March yeah we're planning to take bids the morning of March 24th and I'm trying to remember to you then did you show up here at that meeting
019that night to we'll be back at that meeting with and um we'll work with uh um Andrew hecky which is your legal council to to do the final resolutions they'll come out in draft so when you see that um um the board packet you'll see blanks and that when you get the um initial resolution but we'll work with her that day then to complete those and get the finalized documents for the meeting that night good uh that appears to be it Matt thank you very much yeah glad you came down thanks we'll see you again next month y we'll talk to you in a month uh item seven tonight would just be general information as part of your packet you had the enrollment report anybody have any questions for Mr elad with regard to the
020enrollment report one little red quadrant for Lincoln School but pretty good okay we're going to move on um item eight no action required by the board but we'll start with uh board for Ronald start down there with on your end yeah if you'd like to give us just an update on any committee reports that you've had and anything else um well we did have the finance committee meeting beginning of February and then now we have another one again this coming Monday but yeah we saw the report at the last meeting so nothing nothing new with the okay good we had facilities meeting just the evening at 4:00 um couple things to report is that the Rose Street appraisal has come back and we're just learning and discussing various options um we just heard about um
021kind of the bonding agreement so we talked about that a little bit too just more details about what the pool project was going to be about the hbac both at um the oec and McKinley are the two schools that will get um have the hbac up upgraded and then kind of our um internal General um summer projects um include um some work done at Wilson on carpet um some as bestus removal at Ms um some portable sighting work at Lincoln and um some other wall work at McKinley internal walls and then um some floor replacement at Washington so those are just internal projects that would be in our general summer work um congratulations to those gymnast how exciting what it's just fun last Friday Andre and I had the opportunity to wear Wilson with Mr
022elad and that's always good to be in buildings and classrooms and see those little Beauties just get excited about learning so yeah just um so policy committee obviously we continue to work um almost monthly I think we've been on a fairly good schedule so we met recently um you see in your packet first readings on several policies but um the the bulk then is at the second uh reading so I don't know do you want me to comment on those now or later uh we do have um may we can wait they come they do come up as part of the agenda other than that I would just add on the gymnast thing I was commenting before the um before the meeting I spoke with a parent um of one of the team members and
023of course they were very excited but we spoke specifically about the facility um and she specifically said you know I was talking about oh great coaches and kids and so exciting and she said you know Lori she said having a dedicated space a physical space that supports kids and their their learning and their growing and their athletic she said I think that's a GameChanger um so for what it's worth um they're appreciative and it's nice to see they were successful and proud of themed um we had Nancy Benson had reached out to you know invite us to the um the reception at the high school um and my response to her was to essentially to say and I included Mr elad can we can we get the gymnastics team here to a a school board
024meeting for proper Rec the invite was put out for March 24th for excent moment so yeah that's great uh my very quick update for all of you with regard to the superintendent search goes something like this U Friday of this week and Chris PA director of Human Resources is here and can answer any questions that we might have but this Friday is the close of the application process next week I will ask each of you to coordinate with Chris paica to get into the district office and you will review a packet for each of the applicants and uh the name and their personal information is redacted and they will be referred to as like client or candidate a and candidate B and so on and that is simply because we will use our March 10th
025work session to then walk our way through that and we'll take this list of candidates and we'll winnow it down to I'm going to say five or maybe even six candidates that we will then interview on Monday and Tuesday that would be March 17th and 18th and from that list we are going to we're going to bring it then down to two names and we'll interview uh one person on Wednesday and one person on Thursday so that week of the 17th 17 19 20th those are going to be four really busy days for us but on Thursday night the 20th it it would be our goal and it would be our intent that we're going to make a decision and and we will make that announcement then on Thursday night um I'm going to go
026out on a limb here and say it's probably going to be easier for us to conduct all of this over at the do in that meeting room because it it just it's an easier format it's an easier environment I think for each of us to sit in a in a way where we can interact with each of these candidates and ask questions Elizabeth has posed a a really relevant and ger main question and that is how about the questions and Chris is doing um sort of the the the culling of of a huge database of questions and bringing that winnowing it down so that there's a very very nice wide variety of topics that we will ask about and you are more than welcome to send questions that you would like to Chris uh in
027order to make sure that we are compliant with the nature of the questions that we are asking but we don't talk about the questions in this format because then everyone would know what we're going to ask them so that's the very quick Birds I have you go ahead just a clarification there I think um correct me if I'm wrong but I think at the work session M we will also kind of um discuss who will an ask what question I think that's some of the coordination that we'll do so go ahead so yeah with regard to the questions I think our plan is that they will be ready for us um obviously not to be shared um and then we'll kind of talk through who's going to right on which question and how we orchestrate
028the interview itself thanks that's right if that helps y there's my board Forum update Tim uh two things I guess uh I spent the last two Wednesdays with msba learning about how to be a clerk so for you hopefully I now know a little bit more than I did before um Eric's got big shoes to fill so I figured I would uh Avail myself of that opportunity um the other thing I've done this past week and we'll be doing again this week is teaching Junior Achievement class again at Wilson School a uh it's one of the opportunities that we get to actually you can walk in as a volunteer and you can see the education happening and actually be a part of it and it's a a great experience I really enjoy it U the
029kids are great they're so smart little fourth graders and um so yeah I just I'd highly recommend if you ever want to actually get on the business end of all the stuff that we talk about that's a great opportunity to do it just quick question maybe for the policy Committee in that one of the msba breakout sessions that I went to was about Title 9 and they and even though we had just approved it policy-wise they said well now you need to go back to the 2020 Title 9 instead of the 2024 that we had just passed um and so I just hadn't seen it yet on the on the information that was given so I just wanted to throw that out there if if I might um so we've contacted msba um because they're
030and what they've said is they're going to be issuing guidance like they do with all of our policy revisions too because some people might have different languages language that they were using so we're waiting for MSP to come up with their model policy that reflects the change back yeah Erin um for mock trial we have made it to state which is super exciting so on February 15th we had our prosecution went against Albert Lee and we won so we're super excited so we've got State coming up here and we're going to go stay at a hotel it's going to be awesome uh and then um obviously from there you have a shot at Nationals which is super cool um Nationals you get a brand new case and then you have about a month yes about
031a month about a month to analyze it and create an entire new like directs and crosses and everyone has to learn their new witness so that's like it's super awesome I'm I'm interested in how even if we don't make it how watching that competition cuz they um publish those online uh girls wrestling also made it to state so and obviously we all know about the gymnastics uh Winning State so we've got some some big wins for Minnesota and oana out here um robotics week zero we went to Egan our robot did Super well we're making some changes to help improve it before we're off to Byron this weekend um so we had week zero two weeks ago Byron's going to be this weekend and then a week after that is Colorado and then also auu
032and I have sent off our uh for student for superintendent selection we've sent out our student list um to Sarah so we'll get you'll have your panel of students and then your randomly selected ones I'll set up uh my apologies we didn't send it to Sarah we sent it to miss P Sor um HR Director uh just moving on to what I have to say so over the past few weeks we met with both the high school and middle school advisory groups uh to gather student input on various topics um unfortunately we weren't able to attend the alc meeting uh but yeah let's just I'm going to discuss what we what we um talked about in the Middle School advisory meeting so we discussed concerns uh raised by students and introduced the idea of hosting
033a panel of High School Upper classman so the panel would serve two main purposes um one to provide guidance on class options and career paths helping middle schoolers um just make informed decisions about their future just so they're one step ahead than we were going into eth going into nth grade um and the second second purpose is to Foster peer connections just allowing younger students uh to hear firsthand advice from Juniors and seniors who have navigated those choices themselves a couple years ago I think that that's just um that's something I I would have wanted in my eth grade year and I think it will help them just be one step ahead and then for the high school advisory meeting uh we focus on reviewing the recent uh survey results um and just analyzed the
034data we engaged in like a discussion to understand why some of the results were the way they were and um just that input will help us interpret the survey more effectively and ensure that student perspectives are heard um yeah that's all I had regarding the advisory meetings and some of the extra curricular stuff obviously gymnastics one state which is super impressive and then um for speech so far we are we're going into our home meet two weeks from now I believe um and then big nine is a couple days after that yeah I want to mention we had a triple oana discussion final uh which pretty much means that auu uh Josie Sanford and I all made it into finals for discussion so it was three oana people and then three people from different schools
035so it was it was a really really fun time where all three of us got to final in the same category for once excellent congratulations uh does anybody have anything more for um beyond their uh committee meeting report that they would like to share for board Forum I got a couple other things I thought of too so Andrew and I did visit the middle school too since our couple weeks ago couple weeks ago so I don't think we talked about that so that was a very good visit um and yeah I I said I appreciated the energy in the building but it was it seemed positive you know not chaos you know I mean so it was there was a lot happening and yeah we were there a little our Mr Elon was with us
036as well and yeah just very impressed with the environment and talked to quite a few teachers got to see him uh start dissecting a deer liver or deer heart and um in one in one of the science classes so just a lot of lot of things that were going on but yeah was very good and then also just to mention the girls basketball team couple things that you know the wing streak they were around but then also the really positive thing the letter of the editor that was in the paper from new prag I any saw that um there was a letter letter to the editor in our paper written from the new pra uh assistant varsity coach yes just commenting on the environment that they experienced when they came here on that Saturday and
037they they actually beat us so somebody did say well maybe if they went to one they wouldn't have sent the letter but um so they ended the streak but just the environment they you know experienced with the coaching staff with the school with and there was there was uh extra events that day going on um so yeah if I can add to that and it's really nice to get those emails from other you know districts and other schools that we compete against um in this particular case there was a student athlete from the new preg girls team that broke the 1,000 point mark during a game here and instead of just stopping the game and kind of giving the basketball our announcers went the extra mile and they announced her name and her what she
038had accomplished lished and it just made the whole event feel special for a student that doesn't even attend here and uh there was just a lot of gratitude going around and that's just you know Mr oer coach Web the whole activities department is just class act the way they do things and that was certainly a testimony so good thank okay we will move on um you all had a a Ben the benefit of um seeing the the work session summary in your in your packet and I thought that that did a nice job of summarizing uh the discussion that we had uh and uh lastly and Elizabeth did make a a question with regard to these policy revisions but does anybody have any other questions relative to the first reading on the policy um updates
039that you saw okay hearing none we will move on uh Item B would be the administrative report I know that Julie Sullivan is here and I'll turn things over to Mr yeah I'm going to ask Julie to come up to the table here um as part of an annual uh piece that the board hears and we're responsible for as a district we do an American Indian education sort of concurrence report so I've asked Miss Sullivan tonight to share uh that report or just at least share the findings of it and then um for you well good evening thanks for having me here um each year if we have uh students that qualify under the Native American um I I guess qualifications then we are required to have an American Indian parent advisory committee meeting so
040it's we called the APAC um and that's what we had we had it back in January we invited all of the families that uh that have students that would qualify we had six who responded that they were going to be there so we ordered pizzas and we were all ready to go and we had one who showed up um and actually she she drove from out of town she came from pton because she has a granddaughter who who was in our online program um who is Native American and we had a wonderful time together we kind of ran through some of the different things that our school district is doing different pieces of the curriculum um some of the new standards that are coming down from the state that require some um extra attention to
041Native American um whether it's literature or some history components and uh she was very highly engaged and brought her two granddaughters with her actually a nth grader and a senior and uh we we had we had great dialogue together so um last year we didn't have anybody that showed up um and next year maybe we'll have a little bit more we have 39 students this year that um are earmarked and so that means next year we will also get some um financial support from the from the state I think it comes with $20,000 initially um if you hit a certain Benchmark I think it's 20 students and then you get additional funding for each student after that and we can decide you know we talked with this grandparent about literature she said you know is
042there any chance that we could um get kids to like a poow if they wanted to attend something like that and we said well certainly that would be something that would qualify under that um and so there is a document for chairman uh Sebring to sign and and uh superintendent elstead and then we send that into the state that verifies that we did indeed have a meeting and that she concurred with kind of the action steps that we are taking nice have heard a drive from pton oh my gosh it was it was wonderful we we just had um I think we were together for about an hour and a half and just some wonderful dialogue and why she moved to Minnesota and to get her granddaughters closer to some educational opportunities that might you
043know they came from Texas where she said they just didn't have a whole lot that focused on Native American and so it meant a lot to her to have her grandchildren here and even though she said my do my granddaughter's in the online program it's nice to know that there are different opportunities you know and that curriculum has some components to it so it it was a really really good conversation that night great thank you so much appreciate it thank you we will move on to item nine which is the consent agenda the quick reminder we're approving the minutes from January 27th dispersement as well as the Personnel report is there any reason to pull any one of these items out hearing none we'll entertain a motion to approve I move that the board approve
044the consent agenda second we have a motion in a second Tim if you would please Ron I Andrew I Julene I Lori I Mark I Elizabeth I and I and I as well 70 pass carries very good item 10 tonight there are a couple of items that require board action item a would be the policy revisions this is the second reading there were a couple of things that had some fairly extensive uh changes to them um but with that uh let's start with questions so anybody have any questions relative to the policy revisions um maybe Mark I'll just jump in if I may there were a couple policies last um time we met that had some comments um Elizabeth I think maybe they they were from from you so maybe I'll just respond to those
045and let you know so I'm looking at specifically um 418 the drug-free workplace there was uh discussion at our last meeting about um concern sorry concern over um the smell of cannabis and so forth on clothing or backpacks or so on in the in the classroom and the policy committee um discussed that topic we engaged with District staff and I think the consensus so we have not made any additional changes to that policy um the discussion and please you guys can add to it is that we felt the existing policies addressed the concern or at least allowed uh staff options to deal with that kind of scenario uh we acknowledge that there could be all kinds of um other types of smells or um things that might also require attention and we just didn't want
046to get too far in the Weeds about any particular type um of event so I think staff in you know were very supportive in acknowledging that in practice it works just fine you know that they didn't feel anything was broken so I don't know any other comments on that discussion or oh you got it okay yeah yeah I'll stop there I'll jump down to 606 .5 this one was Library materials and again I think the concern was specifically about whether the School Board needs to kind of weigh in or somehow review this report that's required to the state um again our committee discussed that along with staff and Leadership the conclusion we reached um was really that there are many many reports that go to the state on our behalf um and we were uncomfortable
047necessarily calling this one out um to require some kind of Board review or action and so we again we made one minor change to kind of clarify that if you look in the policy itself we removed the word board so it just says School District which is maybe a little clearer that we're enabling our our leadership and our District staff to take that action on our behalf anything else on that hel it again all righty um and I have no further comments unless there are questions on other other policies I don't know if this is the right place but um am I so I guess I would still like to remove so rather than approve all the policies at one time um remove the 66.5 and the 601 policies to vote separately on those do
048that so we just need a motion to that effect right yeah because we've not entertained a motion to approve anything yet yet so maybe well unless there are further questions if we're ready if we're at a point where we're ready to approve we can Clump together the um the ones that that your preferences that we would uh join together or pull out um sure whatever you think why don't you do why don't you make the motion um and first identify the ones that you are comfortable proceeding with approving okay all right easier you can exclude the ones it's probably a shorter list so you're saying make the motion to or do you want Tim to do it Tim's got it right here I move that we pull out um policies 601 and 66.5 for a
049combined separate approval process from the list as it is presented okay second we have a motion and a second to approve this slate with the exception of 601 and 66.5 okay and we have a second is there any further discussion all in favor with an i i i any opposed that motion carries the second motion then is I move that the board approve the policies as presented excluding 66.1 and 66.5 hold on no you just repeated what the first one was I just want to get it accurate twice in a row that's why no let's the second one is to make the motion for the the two um policies in particular oh not the list not the list just what are the two that we pulled out the first time 601 and 66.5 were removed
050from the list you just approved as a board the remaining policies so 601 and 66.5 for your consideration of approval right okay I'll make the motion that we approve 601 and 66.5 second we have a motion and a second is there any further discussion on that and this is where I'll just say the reason yeah um is just these are policies that I had voted no on previously and and 601 policy um same reason as last time was basically at States I feel that this the policy is stating an opinion um stating that um basically assuming institutional racism and um and that students continue to be um treated in that way so based on that I believe that's an opinion I just don't feel comfortable approving it as stated and then the 66.5 is is
051um just I still think there's just that little Missing Link in that the School Board is just not being made aware of um even in the reconsideration process if once those once those materials are reconsidered um and reported to the state there's just the school board doesn't seem to be aware of any of those so that was just a concern to me so that's all um if if I may and again I um if leadership wants to comment in my experience because I thought about that as we were discussing this um and again you're right that the policy doesn't dictate or require that the board see that material but I think as a practical matter in our working relationship with our leadership and our district leadership um those topics are certainly not hidden from us
052um they're not they they might well report them they're not prohibited from reporting or somehow informing the board I don't know Mr elad in your would agree I think the word awareness is a strong word because I think we would provide a definite awareness if there was a challenge but the way the policy was passed before was it laid out a clear process for a challenge and that we would walk through a process with a a small Committee of community members that would be willing to read the text provide some discussion and then either decide or have recommendation to either say this isn't appropriate or it remains appropriate um and so as the superintendent then I get to operationalize that by either removing that text and or keeping the text there based upon the decision
053of the challenge committee and I'll just lastly I'll just say I'm um we're fortunate to have you Mr elstead um in four months though we're welcoming a new superintendent and and um and there might be some unknowns moving forward so any further discussion okay we have a motion and we have a second all in favor with an i i i any opposed does carry duly noted item tonight would be the achievement and in excuse me I think we have to go back and approve the other ones no we did those first did we already approve the the Slate other than the two yes so you've approved the slate and you pulled each of those out individually that were asked to be pulled and you voted in the affir original motion was to remove the two
054from the Slate that's what I understood as well so then then we only have to approve the Slate we voted voice voted anonymously to approve the Slate after we removed those two that was Jan's motion okay that is what I think I did to double down just make sure I got it right Sarah what are the minutes what are the minutes state so what I had was that the first motion remove thought you had to have another motion okay yeah miss that good point of clarity correct that's what I understood I move to approve the remaining policies as presented second comfortable with that Sarah Mr Sebring point of order if we could because we drifted a bit here I would like to have those remaining policies named that you are approving approving as a slate
055Tim do you have it uh I've got it if you want has it yep so the ones we're approving with this motion then um the remaining ones are 418 603 606 619 and 707 I'm going to wait till I have a visual confirmation from Sarah you okay with that okay so we do have a motion do we have a second second we have a motion and a second any further discussion on this all in favor with an i i any opposed motion carries thanks for the patience there everybody to make sure we had it right now we'll move on Item B would be the achievement and integration plan I'm turn things over to Mr elstead for some you heard U Miss Julie Sullivan Miss Sullivan provide a report on this at the most recent work
056session about about the achievement and integration again this is a a grant that comes the district it joins the Blooming Prairie Public Schools the yatana public schools provides some unique opportunities for both of us uh there is a there is a grant so there's funding sources that are provided for both of us as a result of this and what you see in your packet materials is simply the goals that have been laid out uh by the the teaching and learning Department as well as uh the folks that have been working on that Grant you have any questions you please introduce this motion for us I move that the board approve the achievement and integration plan as presented second have a motion and a second all in favor with an i i any opposed that motion
057carries item C tonight would be that resolution to make recommendations for reductions we heard about this at our work session two weeks ago have a pretty good understanding of of um the dollar amount things that are involved with this Mr elad anything more that you'd like to comment on with regard I would yes um thank you for the perim there cuz we are coming back to this item the reason why this is related to some sort of ambiguity here is that we're still in the final process of identifying which staff may be impacted I made a promise to our staff that if those that are impacted by any reductions will be discussed before it would come to any board vote so that they understand what's coming so upon your consideration of approval tonight of this
058resolution the next step for us is to indeed identify those individuals that will be impacted by the red deductions communicate with them fully on March 24th you'll receive a separate Personnel report that will indicate any non-renewals which is a practice we put in place and have had in place for many years in the district to make sure that staff are well informed if we do not intend to renew their contracts moving forward so again two-step process tonight you're being asked to consider approving the resolution to provide the authority to make those reductions and then within the next month we will indeed take that to action upon your approval questions and mrad so these are effective with the next school year so cor they are effective for the 25 26 school year so FY 26 right
059so we have several months to kind of make these operational I move that the board approve the resolution directing the administration to make recommendations for reductions in programs and positions second we have a motion and a second any further discussion all in favor with an i i any opposed that motion carries item D tonight the 2627 school year so it's not this upcoming school year it's 26 27 um Mr elstead there's a couple changes that are a part of this recommendation yeah the the biggest change here is to note that um On Any Given school calendar year when uh Labor Day happens to fall a little later in the month of September uh there's typically a way for us to bump it back um and actually right now um it's being discussed at the House
060and Senate committees that um typically the legislature takes this up and will approve for the next two years uh to allow districts to start before the Labor Day because of the late holiday so in this calendar you'll see that we are indeed starting school uh right around the 1st of September um and then uh that's because Labor Day falls on Monday September 7th in this particular 26 27 school year everything else is fairly straightforward I will tell you this and again to I want to separate these two um the 2526 calendar is going to come back in March for your final review because we have indeed looked at a couple professional development Days by the way those have not been inserted in this calendar yet this is a fairly straightforward and Traditional School calendar uh
061that you're being asked to consider approving tonight questions um I notice for December 23rd for school that day is that I know that's probably had it's uh it's Up For Debate all the time um you know one of the things we do have a calendar committee that we meet with that um look to make some of those decisions Julie solivan leads our calendar committee that was certainly discussed I think there are those that fall on both sides of the issue um because if you take a student contact day way on the 23rd of December it has to come from somewhere else and so um the calendar committee is not real lenient on allowing more Spring Break dates to be taken away so again it's really a push and pull this happens to be a year
062where uh the 23rd and the calendar committee's um recommendation to us as administrators is that we go to school in the 23rd so any other questions one of youd be kind enough to introduce this motion for us I move that the board approve the 2627 school calendar as presented second you have a motion in a second any further discussion all in favor with an i i any opposed motion carries final item tonight would be the uh gifts to the district item you would be gifts to the district Mr elad yeah we have a few gifts tonight I'll just call out that um even though there's no monetary value attached to it you we received an anonymous donation of two violins violins are incredibly expensive I don't know that there was a estimated value we could
063even put with that but again um there isn't a meeting that goes by that you're not considering uh approving and taking resolution with those gifts that are coming from for various things uh within our community and I continue to be um always and a the gifts that we do receive and very grateful agreed so agreed um would one of you happen to have this motion queued up and ready to go I moveed at the board of approve the resolution for acceptance of gifts as presented second we have Motion in a second Tim if you would this is a roll call vote Ron I Andrea I Joline I Lori I Mark I Elizabeth I and I an I as well 7 P 70 pass excellent uh it item 11 tonight would be to adjourn I will
064make the motion that we adjourn second we have a motion in a second is there any further discussion all in favor with an i i any opposed motion carries good meeting tonight folks thank than you